Bogus Best Friends
by xheyxtherexaliciaxxx
Summary: A oneshot of Tally and Peris making their promise to be best friends "forever," but knowing Tally, things won't turn out quite the way they are supposed to.


**Disclaimer: I do not own the Uglies series or any of it's lovely characters, that honour goes to the amazing Scott Westerfeld.**

**Author's Note: I have been avoiding finishing this for the past two months because I was having a tough time writing the end half of the flash back, but I sucked it up and here it is. Enjoy!**

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><p>"Tally!" Peris whispered fiercely from behind her. "Slow <em>down!<em>"

Dashing furiously from one tree to the next, Tally forced her aching legs to move faster. She didn't have time to wait around for Peris and his lies, especially not when the wardens were so hot on their trail. A sliver of light appeared on her left, growing brighter with every stride. She lurched to a stop, pressing her body up against the nearest tree and holding her breath. The light spread further, illuminating every cranny in the muck covered forest.

She heard the warden before she saw him. He was tall, lean and had a head of orange wavy hair - not a strand out of place. Tally was sure that her own hair resembled a gruesome rats nest and shuddered at the thought of what the he would think of her if she was caught.

The warden moved slowly, searching the river in the opposite direction for any unwanted trespassers: searching for splashing Uglies trying to get home unnoticed.

Searching for Tally.

Adrenaline pulsed through Tally's veins like wildfire as she realised that if the warden looked to his right, she would be discovered. Tally took a quiet deep breath and slowly manoeuvred herself to the other side of the tree, and out of the warden's sight. She waited for several minutes -or what felt like several minutes but in reality was more like thirty seconds- before poking her head around the side of the tree and breathing a sigh of relief at the warden-free view.

She stepped out from behind the tree and walked over to the steadily flowing river. It reminded her of an ink bottle that she and Peris had stolen from a Rusty museum when they first moved into their dorm; their first crime together that started an enviable friendship of never ending tricks.

At least, it was enviable up until half an hour ago.

_The smell of sputtering safety fireworks wafted from the party at Valentino Mansion and through the branches of a nearby evergreen tree that concealed both Tally and Peris. The party was dying down, all of the new pretties were either too tired or too drunk to dance, let alone walk. Some of them collapsed in a drunken haze on the floor, others flagged down wardens to give them a lift home. They were having a party with dancing, music and laughter while she and Peris were sneaking around in the shadows like shunned littlies._

_Peris' silent laughter from beside her shook their perch, distracting her train of thought. Tally looked over at him as he pointed at a stumbling black haired pretty who had sloshed his bubbly drink on his date's dress. Tiny splotches of orange dotted the collar of his purple tux. Tally couldn't quite place them._

"_Look at vomit-boy go! I'd like to see him walk out of the mansion without taking down half of the building with him!" Peris jested, his blue eyes dancing gleefully in the moonlight._

_So it was vomit… _

_Tally had to admit to herself that vomit or no vomit; he was still absolutely stunning. She would give anything to get dressed up in a fancy ball gown and have him slosh his champagne all over it. Barf all over it, even! She wouldn't care that her dress would be in ruins or that they would both be too hung over the next day to remember anything. She wouldn't care because she would be pretty -because life would be perfect._

"_Yeah…" Tally mumbled absently, her eyes glued to the party scene._

_The Pretty's date huffed at him for ruining her dress, even though Tally new that when she got home that she was going to throw it into the wall to recycle it -champagne doused or not. Pretties had it so easy, and in ten months, she and Peris would finally both have the operation._

"_That guy isn't going to have a girlfriend or a sense of dignity after tonight. Lets hope that we don't wind up like that when we turn sixteen, Tally."_

_Tally bit her lip, thinking of the future with excitement and doubt. _

_At the rate the days were passing, it felt like she was never going to turn sixteen. Peris, on the other hand, had his birthday in seven months and would be leaving her stuck in Uglyville with a bunch of zit-faced Uglies. Pretties never visited Uglyville, no matter what promises they made to their friends and family before the operation. Once you turn Pretty everything becomes ten times better, including your new doe-eyed friends with their perfect bone structures. _

_In seven months, the river separating Uglyville and New-Prettytown wouldn't be the only thing standing between Tally and Peris' friendship -it would be her ugly face._

"_Are you ever… Nervous, Peris? Nervous about the operation?" Tally asked, picking at a loose thread in her dorm skirt._

"_No. In a few months I'm going to be beautiful, Tally. And for a few months after that things are going to suck without you, but I'll be sure to make room for you in whatever fascinating clique I decide to honour my presence with."_

"_Really?"_

_Peris smiled at Tally, tilting his head to the side slightly as he did so._

"_C'mon, Tally. You're my best friend! I'm not going to forget you just because you don't come across a bogus river the same day that I do."_

"_But, what if you get caught up in the hype of everything? New friends, surges, parties? You aren't going to want to keep in touch with your immature Ugly friend that will be completely irrelevant in your new life. I'm going to be stuck with a bunch of twelve year olds who have no idea how to trick dorm minders! I do _not _want to befriend someone that brainless, Peris." She rambled, feeling embarrassed at just how mucj __of her feelings she was revealing._

_Tally and Peris didn't do touchy-feely, they did tricks._

"_I don't know what to tell you to make you believe me, Tally. We're best friends _forever_." Peris said with conviction._

_A clawing began in the bottom of Tally's stomach, along with the pricking of tears in her eyes._

"_Swear it." She whispered, biting her lip. _

_She needed him to make it serious -to make it real- even though she knew that it wouldn't change the fact that she was going to be all alone for three months. It would, however, get her through those three months. The memory of this night alone would be enough to get her past a winter worth of boredom and self doubt. This promise would make everything okay._

_Peris snapped a short branch as thick as his thumb off of the tree, sending a storm of pine needles fluttering to the ground. He ran his index finger over the jagged point of the snapped branch and had the same expression that he used while trying to solve a tough math equation. His palm began tracing the point, the tempo gradually becoming faster and faster. Seconds later he pressed down and winced, blood trickled down the stick._

"_Peris!" Tally hissed, grasping his hand away from the branch. "Stop! What the hell are you doing?"_

"_Making a promise." He mumbled as he gingerly prodded at his broken flesh._

"_By trying to kill yourself?"_

"_It's called a blood oath, Tally. There's really no need to be so dramatic."_

"_Blood oath?"_

"_Yeah. Now take the stick and cut your hand, just enough to have a dot of blood. Then we press out hands together and share our blood, making our promise real. You can't lie to someone who shares the same blood as you, Tal."_

"_But that seems so Rusty, Peris. What if we get some soft of disease?" She seemed to recall the Rusties cutting open their own flesh because they _enjoyed_ it. Tally hoped that Peris wasn't trying to bring back some old trend from a dead era of savages._

"_The operation will fix it, Tally, you know it will." He reminded her, still staring at his hand. "Don't tell me that I just ripped a hole in my hand for nothing."_

"_Fine." Tally huffed, glaring at the oozing hole in his hand. "But I'm only poking myself enough to get _one_ drop. I still need my hands intact for jamming dorm minders."_

_Tally closed her eyes a took a deep breath, quickly jabbing the stick in and out of her hand while trying not to think about the throbbing sensation. Slowly a bubble of crimson grew from her palm, reminding her of one of the many red hot-air balloons that flew around Prettytown. There was definently more than one drop of blood._

"_Lets get this over with." Tally muttered, grabbing Peris' hand and pressing their cuts into each other's for several moments before ripping her hand back. "Happy?"_

"_Are you?" Peris whispered, tracing the side of the tree with his hand that was still intact._

_Tally sighed, feeling annoyed and not knowing what to do. Not knowing what to say. _

"_Lets just… go home."_

"_You want to go home?" She growled at him. "We don't live at home anymore, Peris, we're living in a dorm. A dorm with terrible security and dim-witted spot-faced twelve year olds. You're going to leave me in a dorm with no friends and no family for three months while you're out and about partying! It isn't fair! I just wish you would visit me…"_

_He looked at her, confused. "I just promised that we'd be best friends. Forever. Besides, I had no control over my birth date!"_

"_Having control over your birthday or not, best friends don't ignore each other for three months if they know that they are only ten minutes away, do they?"_

"_I-"_

"_You're just going to forget about me, aren't you?"_

"_No, I-"_

"_You what?" Tally snapped, glaring fiercely at him. "You'll visit? When you're stunning and I look __**ugly**__? When you're busy with all of your beautiful and interesting friends? I don't think so, Peris."_

"_I'll visit, Tal, I promise."_

"_Pretties don't visit uglies. Ever." She told him, her voice cracking. _

"_But Tally, I will!" He whispered frantically, grabbing after her as she leapt from the tree._

"_You're a liar." She choked out, just barely loud enough for him to hear as she took off running._

Liars sucked, and as far as Tally was concerned, she and Peris were no longer 'best friends forever,' -screw blood oaths.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: So there you have it, my short little one shot. Written and edited by me, and I am not the best editor, so I apologise for any typos or grammatical errors. <strong>

**Please review! I love getting encouragement and constructive criticism! ~Ali**


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